Sky Sports pundit Tony Cascarino has predicted Unai Emery will sign at least two centre-backs who are “more comfortable on the ball” than Arsenal’s current defenders.
Shkodran Mustafi, Rob Holding and Sokratis Papastathopoulos have been the team’s principle players in the centre of defence this season and started in a three-man backline in both the 2-2 draw at Manchester United and the 4-2 triumph over Tottenham.
Arsenal announced the shattering news on Friday that Holding tore the anterior cruciate ligament of his knee at Old Trafford and has been ruled out for up to nine months.
Cascarino expectes Emery to make major changes in defence next year as he re-shapes the team he took over in the summer.
“Arsenal are often very open, as occurred [at Old Trafford], when there were many occasions when they were left with two or three defenders to deal with a United counterattack,”Cascarino told the Times.
“I think the manager will stick with the very attacking approach that he prefers but I can see him changing personnel at the back, perhaps by bringing in centre halves who are more comfortable on the ball.”
OPINION
The great shame for Holding is that he was playing the best football of his career when he became the latest victim of the ACL curse that affects so many top players when the matches come thick and fast at this time of the year. Arsenal’s defensive options could look very different by the time the 23-year-old is fit, firing and able to take his place in the starting XI, which won’t be until next season. Emery would have had two transfer windows to recruit new players by that stage, amid signs he is going to oversee a front-foot style of play not too dissimilar to that purveyed by the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham in recent years. It is crucial Arsenal have centre-backs who are upgrades on the likes of Mustafi and Sokratis if the team are going to develop into genuine title challengers. Liverpool and Spurs have Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen, defenders as comfortable pinging 60-yard passes as they at winning aerial duels and pulling out perfectly-timed tackles.